Populate Short Description for Catalog Items with Form Variable Value.

[JayGervais]

Hi there, 

We have a catalog item and all records being created contain a generic title (short_description) that was originally added when the item was created. This is problematic because in our list view it has become impossible to easily navigate through the requests. The form to create a request includes form variables including a field for 'What are you requesting? (what_are_you_requestion)' that displays information on the request details page. I have been trying to create a script to populate the Short Description with this variable but have not been able to make it work.

The are some of the things I have tried...

Within the workflow, I added a script to the Activity Properties: Catalog Task:

task.short_description = current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;

I also tried adding a Run Script with the following:

var gr = new GlideRecord('sc_cat_item');
gr.addQuery('sys_id', current.cat_item);
gr.query();
if (gr.next()) {
	gr.short_description = current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;
	gr.update();
}

My last attempt was to create a Business Rule. I tried both async and before insert/update hoping new records could include a title. I have tried a few script variations but this is my most recent:

(function executeRule(current, previous /*null when async*/) {

	// Add your code here
	if (current.name == 'Generic IT Request') {
		current.short_description = current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;
	}

})(current, previous);

I have been struggling to come up with a solution for this and appreciate any advice. Cheers!

[dvp]

To set the short description on catalog task use

task.short_description = current.request_item.variables.what_are_you_requesting;

[SanjivMeher]

If you are talking about setting title for a requested item, you need a run script or onBefore Insert Business rule with below script

for ex

if (current.cat_item.name == 'Generic IT Request') {

current.short_description = current.short_description+'-'+current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;

}

If you also want to set short description in request, add a run script in the requested item workflow, for ex

if (current.cat_item.name == 'Generic IT Request') {

var req = new GlideRecord(sc_request);

req.get(current.request);

req.short_description = req.short_description+'-'+current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;

}

If you want to set it in the task short description, you can do following in Catalog task activity

task.short_description = '<Task to be performed>'+current.variables.what_are_you_requesting;

[JayGervais]

Thank you for the insight. I was able to achieve what I was trying to do with a close variation of what you suggested for the tasks.

task.short_description = 'Generic IT Request (Reassign): ' + current.variables.what_are_you_requesting.toString();

[JayGervais]

For anyone interested, this is my working code to add the string from the variable to the short_description of both the catalog item and task.

var reqDesc = 'IT Request: ' + current.variables.what_are_you_requesting.toString();
if (reqDesc.length > 50) {
	var trimReqDesc = reqDesc.substring(0, 50);
	var finReqDesc = trimReqDesc.trim() + '...';
} else {
	finReqDesc = reqDesc;
}

current.short_description = finReqDesc;
task.short_description = finReqDesc;
task.description = current.variables.what_are_you_requesting.toString();